As we entered 2013, the rumor mill has been increasingly churning out speculative reports regarding Apple’s rumored TV set and smart watch projects, almost on a daily basis. Even Bloomberg joined the frenzy with claims that Apple has as many as a hundred product designers working on a wearable smart watch-like computer that “may perform some of the tasks now handled by the iPhone and iPad.” But here’s the kicker: what if this group is instead working on a television set – fittingly referred to as an iWatch?

This leads us to believe that Bloomberg saying a hundred engineers are developing a new type of Apple computing device could likely be true.

What the publication may have gotten wrong is the project itself.

Louis Bedigian of Benzinga first floated this new theory Monday morning:

Think about it: iPod, iPhone and iPod are great names. iTV, the rumored name for the company’s mysterious television set, is not nearly as catchy. In England, that name is already taken.

iWatch, however, is a fresh name that people currently associate with Apple. Best of all, the name plainly states what consumers will do when they purchase the item.

A wild theory, granted, though it has its merits.

Of course, both iWatch and iTV names were coined by the media, but this doesn’t change the notion that Apple could be purposefully spoon-feeding the press with conflicting rumors in order to keep the actual TV project secret.

On a related note, former Apple exec Jean-Louis Gassée writes in his Monday’s Note article the opposite, that the iWatch could be the next Apple TV. In his mind, Apple would hardly allocate a hundred people to “a retrofit job”.

Instead, he writes, think about the iWatch as your next Even More Personal personal computer – an intimate computer, if you will.

“This would be much more interesting than the perennially in-the-future Apple TV set,” he writes.

Just this morning, news reached us that LG Display, Apple’s major suppliers of screens, is investing approximately $656.7 million in OLED technology to produce 55-inch panels for customers.

We also know the iPhone maker hired LG Display’s OLED expert. Last, but not the least, Apple already holds several patents involving flexible OLEDs, OLED based BLUs for LCDs, OLED control schemes and others.

You connect the dots.

As Apple has (again) been rumored to be interested in buying Loewe, the German luxury TV maker, Gassée speculates “Apple could do both – the company could develop its own watch device and repurpose Löwe’s TV”.

I’m finding it hard to believe Apple would repurpose any one’s product.

The company carefully chooses which markets to enter and once it has its sights set on an industry vertical, it’s usually adamant to turn it upside down and change the pace of the game dramatically.

What’s your take?

Has Apple played big media to fools us into thinking it’s building a smart watch whereas in reality they’ve been secretly working on a TV project?

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My gut tells me it’s neither. An iWatch doesn’t seem like it would differentiate itself enough from already available devices like the Pebble, and an iTV’s hardly a secret if they’re working on it.

iWatch would be a clever name for a TV, but neither of these are shit-eating-grin inducing, and that’s what Apple specializes in. I would know

Yujin

pebble is garbage…just looks sooo 90’s how about a bracelet style foldable touch display? an extension of the iphone, very handy but battery and other issues do make some very important key elements that apple needs to overcome.

JamesR624

Apparently, because the team didn’t work at Cupertino, and because the watch is made to look neutral and work with iOS AND Android, that makes it garbage.

I wanna see YOU develop an iWatch that everyone loves with a team of about 20 people.

Dan

why stop there, maybe iWatch is the code name for an Apple spy sattelite being lauched in the next q

Johnathan Jennings

I’ve been saying all along that Apple will not make a watch, looks like I may be right.

http://twitter.com/oneBurge Burge

What if its both .. A TV on your wrist .. That’s also a watch..wow

http://www.facebook.com/joe.jonsen Joe Jonsen

then i will be bored

Mysteroy3k

It’ll be hysterical if Samsung mass producing watches to get a jump start

Daniel

They are secretly working on iGlasses and force this rumors about iWatch.